Mayor to New York City Students: No Escape

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took off the gloves in his battle with education reformers, rescinding an agreement for the city to share space with several public charter schools.

The move undercuts educators, parents and some 700 students at four schools, including Harlem Success 4, one of the public charter school movement’s top success stories, and two set to open in the fall. While agreements at those schools were rescinded, expansion of a fourth school was also blocked. The schools were to operate rent-free in city-owned facilities under deals backed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an ardent supporter of charter schools.

But de Blasio, who is an unabashed critic of charter schools and won election with full-throated support of the United Federation of Teachers, said in a statement some of the city’s agreements to share class space will be voided. City officials said some of the deals that were stricken would have had elementary students attending class in high school buildings or forced cuts for public school special needs students.

11 Responses to Mayor to New York City Students: No Escape

United Federation of Teachers serve “in loco parentis” and are allowed to teach only what the parents of the students allow them to teach. No tax money for United Federation of Teachers until they acknowledge that they serve the public schools in place of parental authority. If the United Federation of Teachers refuses to acknowledge their duty in respect to parents, they must find another name as the one they use is false advertising.
If the charter school parents want charter schools, the United Federation of Teachers must accede to the parents’ desires.

Thank God when I went to school history, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, pre-calculus, a foreign language (Latin for me), biology, chemistry, and physics were still required subjects. Everyone should be able to do polynomials, figure out forces using the law of levers, explain Julius Caesar’s assassination, build a simple lead acid battery, read Cicero’s orations in the original tongue, and write comprehensible prose in the English language.

Another not-good sign: the campaign manager credited with getting de Blasio elected mayor has been hired to run Ill. Gov. Pat Quinn’s campaign for reelection, and this move is seen as a signal that Quinn will be running a “populist,” i.e. hard-left, campaign:

This is probably being done in anticipation of Quinn’s general election opponent being Bruce Rauner, Chicago gazillionaire .01 percenter who can best be described as Mitt Romney on Steroids (when it comes to economic issues), minus any concern for social/moral issues.

Art Deco: “The sheer fecklessness of New York City’s electorate in putting this silly and ignorant man in charge of anything just boggles the mind.”
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I do not believe that the electorate put this man in office.

Since NYC is a legal creation of the state of New York, and thus retains only those powers granted to it by the state, why doesn’t one – just one – state legislator introduce a bill for the state to take over the municipal properties used by these charter schools? People need to stop their silence in the face of this egalitarian bullying.